Goto Section: 54.302 | 54.304 | Table of Contents
FCC 54.303
Revised as of October 5, 2017
Goto Year:2016 |
2018
§ 54.303 Eligible Capital Investment and Operating Expenses.
(a) Eligible Operating Expenses. Each study area's eligible operating
expenses for purposes of calculating universal service support pursuant
to subparts K and M of this part shall be adjusted as follows:
(1) Total eligible annual operating expenses per location shall be
limited as follows: Calculate Exp(Ŷ + 1.5 * mean square error of the
regression), where
Ŷ = α̂ + β̂1X1 + β̂2X2 + β̂3X3
α̂, β̂1, β̂2, and β̂3 are the coefficients from the regression,
X1 is the natural log of the number of housing units in the study area,
X2 is the natural log of the number of density (number of housing units
per square mile), and
X3 is the square of the natural log of the density
(2) Eligible operating expenses are the sum of Cable and Wire
Facilities Expense, Central Office Equipment Expense, Network Support
and General Expense, Network Operations Expense, Limited Corporate
Operations Expense, Information Origination/Termination Expense, Other
Property Plant and Equipment Expenses, Customer Operations Expense:
Marketing, and Customer Operations Expense: Services.
(3) For purposes of this section, the number of housing units will be
determined per the most recently available U.S Census data for each
census block in that study area. If a census block is partially within
a study area, the number of housing units in that portion of the census
block will be determined based upon the percentage geographic area of
the census block within the study area.
(4) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this section,
total eligible annual operating expenses for 2016 will be limited to
the total eligible annual operating expenses as defined in this section
plus one half of the amount of total eligible annual expense as
calculated prior to the application of this section.
(5) For any study area subject to the limitation described in this
paragraph, a required percentage reduction will be calculated for that
study area's total eligible annual operating expenses. Each category or
account used to determine that study area's total eligible annual
operating expenses will then be reduced by this required percentage
reduction.
(b) Loop Plant Investment allowances. Data submitted by rate-of-return
carriers for purposes of obtaining high-cost support under subparts K
and M of this part may include any Loop Plant Investment as described
in paragraph (c)(1) of this section and any Excess Loop Plant
Investment as described in paragraph (h) of this section, but may not
include amounts in excess of the Annual Allowed Loop Plant Investment
(AALPI) as described in paragraph (d) of this section. Amounts in
excess of the AALPI will be removed from the categories or accounts
described in paragraph (c)(1) of this section either on a direct basis
when the amounts of the new loop plant investment can be directly
assigned to a category or account, or on a pro-rata basis in accordance
with each category or account's proportion to the total amount in each
of the categories and accounts described in paragraph (c)(1) of this
section when the new loop plant cannot be directly assigned. This
limitation shall apply only with respect to Loop Plant Investment
incurred after the effective date of this rule. If a carrier's required
Loop Plant Investment exceeds the limitations set forth in this section
as a result of deployment obligations in § 54.308(a)(2), the carrier's
AALPI will be increased to the actual Loop Plant Investment required by
the carrier's deployment obligations, subject to the limitations of the
Construction Allowance Adjustment in paragraph (f) of this section.
(c) Definitions. For purposes of determining loop plant investment
allowances, the following definitions apply:
(1) Loop Plant Investment includes amounts booked to the accounts used
for subparts K and M of this part, loop plant investment.
(2) Total Loop Plant Investment equals amounts booked to the categories
described in paragraph (b)(1) of this section, adjusted for inflation
using the Department of Commerce's Gross Domestic Product Chain-type
Price Index (GDP-CPI), as of December 31 of the Reference Year.
Inflation adjustments shall be based on vintages where possible or
otherwise calculated based on the year plant was put in service.
(3) Total Allowed Loop Plant Investment equals Total Loop Plant
Investment multiplied by the Loop Depreciation Factor.
(4) Loop Depreciation Factor equals the ratio of total loop accumulated
depreciation to gross loop plant during the Reference Year.
(5) Reference Year is the year prior to the year the AALPI is
determined.
(d) Determination of AALPI. A carrier subject to this section shall
have an AALPI set equal to its Total Loop Plant Investment for each
study area multiplied by an AALPI Factor equal to (0.15 times the Loop
Depreciation Factor + 0.05). The Administrator will calculate each rate
of return carrier's AALPI for each Reference Year.
(e) Broadband Deployment AALPI adjustment: The AALPI calculated in
paragraph (d) of this section shall be adjusted by the Administrator
based upon the difference between a carrier's broadband availability
for each study area as reported on that carrier's most recent Form 477,
and the weighted national average broadband availability for all
rate-of-return carriers based on Form 477 data, as announced annually
by the Wireline Competition Bureau in a Public Notice. For every
percentage point that the carrier's broadband availability exceeds the
weighted national average broadband availability for the Reference
Year, that carrier's AALPI will be reduced by one percentage point. For
every percentage point that the carrier's broadband availability is
below the weighted national average broadband availability for the
Reference Year, that carrier's AALPI will be increased by one
percentage point.
(f) Construction allowance adjustment. Notwithstanding any other
provisions of this section, a rate-of-return carrier must exclude from
the data it submits for the purposes of obtaining high-cost support
under subpart K or subpart M of this part the amount of Loop Plant
Investment associated with a new construction project that exceeds the
Maximum Average Per Location Construction Project Limitation for that
project as determined by the Administrator according to the following
formula:
(1) Maximum Average Per Location Construction Project Loop Plant
Investment Limitation equals the inflation adjusted equivalent to
$10,000 in the Reference Year calculated by multiplying $10,000 times
the applicable annual GDP-CPI. This inflation adjusted amount will be
normalized across all study areas by multiplying the product above by
(the Loop Cap Adjustment Factor times the Construction Limit Factor)
Where:
The Loop Cap Adjustment Factor equals the lesser of 1.0 or the
annualized monthly per loop limit described in § 54.302 (i.e., $3,000)
divided by the unadjusted per loop support amount for the study area
(the annual HCLS and CAF-BLS support amount per loop in the study not
capped by § 54.302)
and the
Construction Limitation Factor equals the study area Total Loop
Investment per Location divided by the overall Total Loop Investment
per Location for all rate-of-return study areas.
(2) This limitation shall apply only with respect to Loop Plant
Investment for which invoices were received by the carrier after the
effective date of this rule.
(3) A carrier subject to this section will maintain documentation
necessary to demonstrate compliance with the above limitation.
(g) Study area data. For each Reference Year, the Administrator will
publish the following data for each study area of each rate-of-return
carrier:
(1) AALPI
(2) The Broadband Deployment AALPI Adjustment
(3) The Maximum Average Per Location Construction Project Loop Plant
Investment Limitation
(4) The Loop Cap Adjustment Factor
(5) The Construction Limit Factor
(h) Excess Loop Plant Investment carry forward. Loop Plant Investment
in a Reference Year in excess of the AALPI may be carried forward to
future years and included in AALPI for such subsequent years, but may
not cause the AALPI to exceed the Total Allowed Loop Plant Investment.
(i) A carrier subject to this section will maintain subsidiary records
of accumulated Excess Loop Plant Investment for accounts referenced in
paragraph (c)(1) of this section in addition to the corresponding
depreciation accounts. In the event a carrier makes Loop Plant
Investment for an account at a level below the AALPI for the account,
the carrier may reduce accumulated Excess Loop Plant Investment
effective for the Reference Year by an amount up to, but not in excess
of the amount by which AALPI for the Reference Year exceeds Loop Plant
Investment for the account during the same year.
(j) Treatment of unused AALPI. In the event a carrier's Loop Plant
Investment is below its AALPI in a given Reference Year, there will be
no carry forward to future years of unused AALPI. The Administrator's
recalculation of AALPI for each Reference Year will reflect the revised
AALPI, Loop Depreciation Factor, Total Loop Plant Investment, and Total
Allowed Loop Plant Investment for the Reference Year.
(k) Special circumstances. The AALPI for Loop Plant Investment may be
adjusted by the Administrator by adding the applicable adjustment below
to the amount of AALPI for the year in which additions to plant are
booked to the accounts described in paragraph (c)(1) of this section,
associated with any of the following:
(1) Geographic areas within the study area where there are currently no
existing wireline loop facilities;
(2) Geographic areas within the study area where grant funds are used
for Loop Plant Investment;
(3) Geographic areas within the study area for which loan funds were
disbursed for the purposes of Loop Plant Investment before the
effective date of this rule; and
(4) Construction projects for which the carrier, prior to the effective
date of this rule, had awarded a contract to a vendor for a loop plant
construction project within the study area.
(l) Documentation requirements. The Administrator will not make these
adjustments without appropriate documentation from the carrier.
(m) Minimum AALPI. If a carrier has an AALPI that is less than $4
million in any given year, the carrier shall be allowed to increase its
AALPI for that year to the lesser of $4 million or its Total Allowed
Loop Plant Investment.
[ 81 FR 24337 , Apr. 25, 2016, as amended at 82 FR 14339 , Mar. 20, 2017;
82 FR 22903 , May 19, 2017]
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Goto Section: 54.302 | 54.304
Goto Year: 2016 |
2018
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